PUPILS from a county secondary school travelled overseas to pay their respects to the soldiers of the First World War.

There were 55 Year 11 pupils from St Mary’s RC High school who followed the route taken by the soldiers and travelled across the English Channel to the Somme region in France and to Flanders Fields in Belgium.

The trip has been run by the Lugwardine school for more than 30 years and ties in with the GCSE history course.

But this year was particularly special as it marked 100 years since the end of the First World War.

The group traced the final resting place of pupils' relatives who fought on the Western Front and followed the story of the 29 soldiers from Lugwardine who feature on the village's war memorial.

Students also visited trenches, Thiepval Memorial to the missing, the town of Ypres with a performance of the play Journey’s End, and cemeteries of both British and German soldiers.